Yagé is another name for ayahuasca, the Amazonian brew that contains DMT and MAO-blocking alkaloids. It is the name met most often in Colombian sources and in older English writing. Merriam-Webster defines yage simply as ayahuasca, lists the spellings yagé, yaje and yajé, and traces it to American Spanish, perhaps borrowed from a language of the Tukanoan family (Merriam-Webster, yage). Collins’ British entry says it entered English in the 20th century from Colombian Spanish (Collins, yagé).
The name has a scientific history too. A 2023 history of early ayahuasca research reports that when researchers studied the drink in the 1930s and 1940s, it was better known as yagê or caapi than as ayahuasca (Lima and Marinho, 2023). One of the first alkaloids isolated from the vine was named “yageine” before it was shown to be harmine.
Yagé is one name among many. The same history lists Indigenous names such as caapi, kamarampi, nixi pae and uni, and warns that the single word now popular in science does not represent the diversity of uses and meanings Indigenous peoples have given the drink (Lima and Marinho, 2023). A different name does not mean a different legal status: in Canada, a preparation containing DMT is controlled.
Sources
- Merriam-Webster: yage
- Collins English Dictionary: yagé
- Lima and Marinho, 2023, História, Ciências, Saúde: early ayahuasca research 1850–1950
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